DUBLIN-BORN axe-hero Bernie Torme has probably endured more Spinal Tap moments in his chequered career than anyone deserves. A key member of Ian Gillan s band in the early eighties, he also served time with rock dinosaurs Atomic Rooster and toured with bat-eater extraordinaire, Ozzy Osborne, before forming his own outfits, The Electric Gypsies and the modestly named, Torme. Time for an explanation, Mr Torme!
Well, I was always described as a heavy metal guitarist but I don t know why, he ponders. I personally hated all that flashy rock star stuff. I d come up in the late Sixties blues era and my heroes were people like Peter Green, Jeff Beck and Clapton.
Presumably then, it was all down to the spandex-wearing musical company he kept?
Fair enough, he laughs. But in truth, no-one in Gillan actually wore spandex. Working with Ozzy though, definitely brought me deep into Spinal Tap territory. For a start he had this huge stage 200 ft across and a castle with porticos and pyramids. When I saw it I thought, Oh God, what have I let myself in for! Backstage was the most bizarre of all. His wife (and manager) Sharon, wouldn t allow alcohol in the dressing room not even a beer. UFO were on the tour so I spent all the time in their dressing room.
Torme had reluctantly joined the former Black Sabbath frontman following the sudden death of Ozzy s guitar player, Randy Rhoads. It was a move he would live to regret, like going, as he puts it, from the Gillan frying pan to the Blizzard of Ozz fire.
I d just left Ian Gillan which I hadn t enjoyed, musically, he explains. Even though we d had huge success with the Mr Universe album which went top ten, it all went downhill very quickly after that. We toured continuously for three and a half years and did two more albums. But we were all starving, apart from Ian. He had a slight tax problem basically, he owed millions going back to his Deep Purple days, and it all ended up in tears, with everyone hating each other s guts.
The thing I hated most about playing with Ozzy, he recalls, was the volume. I had 300 watts of Marshall cabs behind me and I couldn t hear a note all I could hear was Ozzy s voice booming out. It was excruciating. But apart from that he s a lovely bloke. A couple of times I had a drink with him. But that could be a dangerous game too. You d go down for a quick one and it would be like four double brandies and he d be out of it. To make things worse, he wouldn t have any money on him and I d have to pay for it!
Bernie Torme originally left Dublin for the UK in the mid-Seventies, following spells with various Dublin groups including such long forgotten names as Wormwood and The Urge. The first thing he did upon arriving on the shores of Blighty was to change his name from the fairly conventional Tormey to the rather more exotic Torme. Someone said to me you ve got to change it to Torme, it s much more stylish . So I did. Everyone asks if I m related to Mel Torme.
After various unsuccessful projects Torme formed a punk outfit in 1977. Not surprisingly, especially given his background, this too was doomed from the start. I was always one to jump on a bandwagon, he laughs. We were the only punk band with a guitar hero a very bad idea, as there were no punk guitar heroes!
He was eventually saved by what would become known as the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, a scene that was led by bands like Iron Maiden, Saxon and Def Leppard. Despite his success with Gillan and Osborne, however, Torme walked out of the spotlight to concentrate on a solo career.
Liberated from the restrictions and clichis of heavy metal, his solo debut Turn Out The Lights displayed influences as diverse as T-Rex and The Rolling Stones and was released to positive reaction in 1982. This was followed, a year later, by the equally acclaimed Electric Gypsies. Both of these albums have now been re-mastered and re-released with extra tracks.
Meanwhile, Torme is working on a new album which he expects to be out in April. I m hoping to get out and play live this time and I m really keen to come to Dublin for some gigs, he concludes. n
Turn Out The Lights and Electric Gypsies are released on Retrowrek Records.